This application claims the priority of German patent document 10 2005 010 683.8-25, filed Mar. 9, 2005, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a mobile building and a building module, particularly for use as a military command post, a military hospital or an encampment.
Such mobile buildings are used world-wide, particularly by so-called military crisis reaction forces, and the need to transport them by aircraft and, in particular, to drop them from the air plays an increasingly important role.
Mobile buildings in the form of parallelepiped containers, preferably ISO Standard containers, with rigid load-carrying surface elements are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,854 discloses a container that includes lateral expansion elements in order to enlarge the width of its interior. In addition to rigid load-carrying surface elements, these expansion elements also have flexible surface elements made of textiles. Because of its weight and dimensions, this container is not suitable for dropping from the air.
European Patent Document EP 1 273 743 A1 discloses mobile buildings which consist completely of inflatable surface elements. These have a low weight and, to this extent, are well suitable for air transport. However, they require an additional transport container in which they can be safely stored, for transport and for the depositing from the air. Furthermore, equipment cannot be preinstalled in these buildings, but must be transported separately, and the time period for putting the building into operation is relatively long.
It is an object of the invention to provide a building which can be transported by air and dropped from the air, and which can be rapidly constructed and put into operation.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the building according to the invention, and partial modules thereof, which are very well adapted to the requirements of transportability by air and the capability to be dropped from the air. The building according to the invention includes significant parts which are made of flexible inflatable material (which parts naturally have a low weight) and rigid load-bearing surface elements. By means of its load-bearing surface elements, the building can be converted into a stable container housing for transport. The flexible surface elements of the building, (and in a particularly advantageous embodiment, preinstalled equipment) can be accommodated in the interior of the container housing that is thus formed. Additional transport containers are therefore not required.
The height of the container during the transport is lower than the height of the building itself, so that the container has small transport dimensions. This feature has an important advantage for transportation by air and for dropping from the air. Moreover, because of the inflatable surface element or elements, as well as the preintegration of equipment objects in the container, the building according to the invention can be put into operation very rapidly.
The mobile building can be transported by both cargo planes and helicopters, and can be dropped from the air by means of paradrops. For the land transport, a container can be equipped with wheels or can be placed on a truck or trailer, and because of the high inherent stability of the container, several can be stacked above one another for storage and for transport.
As mentioned above, a building can be constructed of several partial modules. These partial modules may be present as several types, particularly as                end modules,        center modules,        coupling modules for connecting additional buildings.Partial modules of the same type are preferably completely identical. Furthermore, regardless of the type of the partial modules, the containers have identical dimensions.        
In one embodiment, a closed-off building consists of two end modules and one center module. The number of center modules can be increased arbitrarily in order to enlarge the length of the building. In addition, several such buildings can be connected with one another at a right angle by means of the above-mentioned coupling modules.
In a particularly advantageous embodiment, the partial modules have temporary flexible surface elements provided at the connection to the neighboring module, which flexible surface elements can be removed after the partial modules are coupled together. The rigid load-bearing surface elements together with the inflatable flexible surface elements as well as the temporary surface elements of a partial module form a shell which is completely closed off to the outside. This shell is already present in the transport condition and can also be maintained at all times during the construction. Only after the respective partial modules have been connected, will the temporary surface elements at the transition between the two partial modules be removed. This ensures that the interior of the building is completely protected at any point in time against the penetration of dirt, dust, etc., which is of considerable importance particularly when the building is used as a military hospital or laboratory.
Further advantages of the invention will become evident from the description and from the drawing. Exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in a simplified form in the drawing and will be explained in more detail in the following description. In the drawing